Organizations often require documents in the course of their businesses for a variety of reasons. As mentioned above, these documents may be in the form of reports, analyses, proposals, marketing materials, brochures, manuals, guides, prospectus, booklets, and other items. Often, in such contexts, documents are required in limited quantities. In addition, the document content is often dynamic over the course of its preparation, and thus may evolve as numerous versions or drafts up until the point of releasing the final document for use by its intended recipients. For example, in the context of commercial bidding, there is often a significant need for flexibility in terms of the content of the document given the dynamic nature of negotiations. In addition, in the commercial bidding context, there is often a significant need for rapid production and binding of documents, generally within a very limited time, to avoid unduly protracting negotiations, which may in effect lead to lost opportunities. In normal negotiated or interactive contexts, only a few minutes to a few days may mean the difference as to whether a negotiation or bid is successfully concluded. But despite severe time constraints, it will be advantageous if the documents to be presented or distributed possess very professional appearance and be of as high quality as possible. Oftentimes, in addition to the document substance, the exterior appearance of the document may itself have a significant influence on the document recipients' final decision. For example, a decision maker may be so constrained by time that that person can only pick and read a few from a large number of competing documents. This person's selection is likely to be based in large part on the best first impression upon the exterior appearances of the received documents. In view of these facts, a document producer normally desires to make the presented document more noticeable and impressive in its appearance, easier to navigate to find information of interest, durable so as to maintain its presentable appearance even though it may be subject to rough handling or handling by numerous persons over the course of its use, all without significantly increasing production cost. These are often competing objectives that are each difficult to attain in a manner that avoids adverse impact on other desirable objectives for the document to be produced. Therefore, an improved method is needed for binding documents that are to be printed within a limited amount of time with the expectation of high quality, even though the documents are to be produced in relatively low quantities. This category of documents is hereinafter referred as “Short Run Full Dress Documents” (SRFDD).
More specifically, it would be desirable from the standpoint of a document producer to provide a binder assembly and method to attain one or more, and preferably all, of the following objectives: (1) Short Run, meaning that the producer may produce SRFDD, typically between 5 and 100 copies, on a regular basis, with the ability to reuse the formats and content; (2) Quick Turn, meaning that SRFDD can be produced within limited time, and can be revised even after printing and binding; (3) Full Dress, meaning that the producer is allowed to personalize the SRFDD cover with names or titles tailored to particular recipients, and make the SRFDD easily identifiable in its stored position, either standing vertically or stacked horizontally, so that high standards of quality or service are demonstrated to reflect favorably upon the producer; and (4) Cost Control, meaning that the producer can control the unit cost at a moderate level by standardizing many components in producing and binding SRFDD. From the perspective of a recipient, the improved binder assembly should have the following characteristics: (1) document pages/sheets lay flat when the document is open; (2) document sheets/pages and covers are mechanically connected so that the enclosed pages/sheets do not fall out and their intended sequence is preserved; (3) the document spine is imprinted with information useful to the recipient, such as Project Name, Contract Number, Client Name, Logo or any other indicia; (4) the document is easily identifiable in its stored position, either standing vertically or stacked horizontally; and (5) the binding adds little bulk to the document. As explained below, all these objects required by both the document producer and recipient can not be completely realized by prior binding methods.
FIGS. 1A-1C illustrate the primary problems with prior art binding methods. The bound document in FIG. 1A has a ring binder assembly that enables the document to lay flat when opened. However, the pages are generally more difficult to turn as compared to a book binding, requiring that such pages be slid along the rings from one side of the binder assembly to the other. Further, due to resistance of the rings when turning the pages, the pages tend to tear. In addition, the binder incorporates a relatively large quantity of metal and other materials that are relatively expensive, significantly increasing the cost of the documents to be produced. Also, the configuration of the cover is such that it cannot readily be printed. Instead, the only customized printing that can be done is to print a tag of limited size for insertion into a pocket on the spine of the ring binder assembly. The result is that the binder assembly has a generic appearance which is unlikely to impress the recipient. Further, using ring binders, a series of documents cannot be stacked flat unless the documents inside happen to be the same thickness as the spine. Hence, if ring binders are stacked, they tend to tilt on each other so that very few can be stacked until the uppermost binder slips off. It would be desirable to provide documents that could be readily stacked in an organized fashion.
As seen in FIG. 1B, the “book-like” or book-bound documents provide a relatively flat spine for bearing titles, marks, or any other indicia thereon to identify the enclosed document. However, such a book cannot lay flat when opened, as shown in FIG. 1C. Rather, it tends to close automatically due to the manner in which it is bound along its spine. This is a source of considerable difficulty and frustration for readers who have to hold the document open by hand while reading the content.
In part to resolve the problem of hiding the binder, many document producers create a jacket or wrap to go around the finished documents. Standard ring binders generally have been avoided by SRFDD producers, primarily because they are bulky, difficult to dress up to improve their appearance, and require too long of a lead time to customize their imprinting. Imprinting custom graphics on the outside of the ring binder in short runs is prohibitive in terms of both cost and time. Also, the ring binder can be readily opened. In the event that the ring binder is inadvertently opened, the document sheets therein can be spilled out, resulting in loss of correct order of the document sheets, and the need to reorder the document sheets and rejoin them with the ring binder. One option for hiding binder is to create a single piece jacket to connect to the binder before the first page and after the last page of the enclosed document to hide the binder. But connecting the jacket to the hardware in two places causes the jacket to buckle or crease when the document is opened, due to the dimensional changes in the document (i.e., the stack of document sheets) in its opened and closed configurations. Some document producers have created wrap covers for their SRFDD needs that are printed lightweight paper board (e.g., 0.012″ in thickness (″ refers to an “inch” which is equal to 2.54 centimeters)) and punched so that the binder shows only on the back cover. This does hide the binder when the document is closed, but exposes the binder if the document is opened.
U.S. patent application publication 2002/0131811 presents another configuration for hiding binder to enhance the appearance of a report. This application discloses a report cover which can be used to with a report bound by a flexible comb binding. An insert is bound on the backside of the report (i.e., document sheets) in the flexible comb binding and then fit within a pocket in the interior backside of the cover. The front and back covers and spine enclose the report and spiral binding to provide an attractive final report appearance. Although meritorious from the standpoint of providing an attractive appearance, insofar as it is applicable to the SRFDD market, this binding has significant shortcomings. For instance, the cover is not attached to the enclosed report in a sufficiently secure manner. Although this binding configuration allows an insert to slide into a pocket defined on the back cover, and has a tab defined on the edge of the slide that can be inserted into a corresponding slot on the edge of the pocket, the report and cover can nonetheless readily come apart when handled by a reader. Furthermore, the cover is made of rigid board which creates several problems deviating from what those skilled in the art would deem desirable characteristics of SRFDDs. First, the rigid board cover adds bulk to the report assembly. To have a lightweight document and save filing space, the recipient would most likely be compelled to discard the cover by removing it from the bound report, which can be done easily enough since they are only loosely connected, hence defeating the document producer's purpose to have an attractive appearance of the report. Second, rigid board covers must be manufactured to accommodate a binder of certain size. Given that the document substance may be constantly changing during preparation of a SRFDD, in many cases, the thickness of such SRFDD may be undetermined until shortly before the document is due to be provided to the recipient. While it is theoretically possible to produce numerous binders of varying spine thickness for a particular project with the intent that one of the binder sizes will ultimately be found suitable, this is not generally a practical option in that the resulting cost of numerous wasted binders would generally be prohibitive. In addition, a rigid board cover cannot be fed into a printer directly. Instead, a flexible substrate must be printed and wrapped around the board. The process of setting up necessary equipment or machinery for printing a substrate and then applying it to the board can be very time-consuming. It also increases production cost due to the specific need for wrapping machines.
By use of relatively flexible sheet material rather than rigid boards to form the cover, the document folder disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,675 allows the cover to be fed through a computer printer for imprinting directly. That patent also employs a relatively rigid stiffener disposed between the front and back panels of the cover to support the folder when stored vertically. However, as illustrated in this patent, the size of the required cover wrap is so large that special printing machines are generally required, which increases assembly cost. Another disadvantage of this folder is that the cover does not completely hide the binder because of the manner in which the binder is mounted upon the back panel. An alternative way of adhering the binder to the back panel, as illustrated in the patent, cures this deficiency, but it gives rise to the concern that the binder may easily slide off from the back cover. Therefore, this patent does not resolve the problems discussed above, but may actually create additional deficiencies and disadvantages.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to provide a binding method for relatively rapid, flexible, and inexpensive production of SRFDDs that allows standardized components to be pre-manufactured, and project-specific or personalized components to be produced in a relatively short period of time even when the document thickness, dimensions, format, graphics and/or style are not determined until shortly before the document is finalized for production.
It would further be desirable to provide a document binder assembly that can accommodate a variety of commonly available binding techniques, which may employ reversible as well as permanent binders, and the employed binders can be of various sizes, without requiring costly mechanical adjustment or customization.
It would further be desirable to provide a binder assembly that mechanically connects the enclosed document to the cover so as to preserve the document order as well as accommodate the dimensional changes of the document in closed and open positions so that the document lays flat for easy reading when it is open.
It would further be desirable to provide a self-supporting binder assembly by means of which the enclosed document can be vertically positioned in horizontally extending rows.
It would also be desirable to provide a cover for hiding the binder as well as for titling and imprinting textual information, symbols, markings, graphics, etc., collectively referred to as ‘indicia,’ on the cover in a spine area thereof, to make an integral professional appearance of a SRFDD for specific presentation or distribution purposes.